Space Crusader is the moniker for Andrew Valenti who recently released a seven-song album entitled The Visions. According to Valenti the album is the brief culmination of a young man becoming fed up with living in a small town. The ubiquitous topic will certainly resonate with a majority of the youth growing up in the states and around the world for that matter. Hence, It’s a shame most of the lyrics are almost impossible to decipher. Musically Valenti reminded me of early Pavement, Guided by Voices and even the Liars at points. This is an album I wanted to enjoy more but couldn’t get past the bad production. It’s really a shame because the songs are well written, some better than others but still good for the most part. There is a level of production I can get behind such as Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted, which is a raw record but still is a good sounding record. Unfortunately, The Visions is a couple of notches below that.

The Visions goes by quickly as the songs are relatively short and average around two-minutes in length. Valenti starts off with a fourteen-second track entitled “The Beginning” that is rather pointless and isn’t indicative of what you can expect from the remaining songs (except the closing track). It’s the sound of a rising illuminating pad that awkwardly sets up the first song “The Visions.”

”The Visions“ ends up being the highlight of the album. The Pavement comparison is most notable here as it has a stoner-esque slacker type vibe but is combined with some very catchy vocal melodies. On top of that the guitar work is creative. The next track “City Air” is more sloppy than loose and is about a minute long. It’s a marginal effort that sets up the next track “Good Idea.” “Good Idea” was a solid song but all I heard were cymbals that were clearly masking the vocals and guitars. “My World” is a mess production wise and seems to be missing a ridiculous amount of low-end frequencies. The title track is clearly the best track on this album. It’s not only the catchiest song but also the production sounds passable. Hopefully, Valenti can befriend an engineer or get into a studio next time around. His talent deserves a proper delivery.

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